Gianluigi Buffon (45) has a chance to return to Serie A with his childhood sweetheart Parma | Foreign football

That fourth place is good for a place in the half of the play-offs for promotion to Serie A. Parma took an early lead tonight via former Italian (twice) and Argentinian (three times) international Franco Vázquez (34) in the Ennio Tardini Stadium. Via the Finnish striker Joel Pohjanpalo, who scored his nineteenth goal of the season, Venezia came back to 1-1 shortly before the break. In the 78th minute, Driss Camara scored the winning 2-1 for Parma, which put Cagliari ahead of goal difference to finish fourth in Serie B.

Like number three Bari, Parma has already qualified for the semi-finals of the play-offs. In the quarterfinals of the play-offs, Cagliari – Venezia and Südtirol – Reggina are scheduled for next week. The winners of those duels will therefore compete against Bari and Parma, followed by a final for the third and final ticket to Serie A. Champion Frosinone (from coach Fabio Grosso) and number two Genoa (from coach Alberto Gilardino and midfielder Kevin Strootman) were already certain of a return to Serie A.

Buffon has played 17 of 38 league matches this season. Second goalkeeper Leandro Chichizola (33) and third goalkeeper Edoardo Corvi (22) kept the other matches. On January 10, Buffon also played in the round of 16 of the Coppa Italia against Inter, which then won 2-1 after extra time. Buffon returned that evening to San Siro in Milan, the place where he made his professional debut as a 17-year-old goalkeeper on November 19, 1995. That afternoon he kept his goal clean (0-0) against the then top players of AC Milan such as Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini, Marcel Desailly, Roberto Baggio and George Weah.

Buffon has now made 974 club appearances: 265 for Parma, 685 for Juventus and 25 for Paris Saint-Germain. In addition, he played 176 international matches for Italy, with which he became world champion in 2006 after France was defeated on penalties in Berlin.

Buffon returned to Parma in 2021 after twenty years, with which he already won the UEFA Cup and Coppa Italia in 1999 with teammates such as Lilian Thuram, Fabio Cannavaro, Juan Sebastián Verón, Enrico Chiesa and Hernán Crespo. In February 2022, six months after returning to his childhood sweetheart, he extended his contract at Parma already with two years. “I can still give everything. I want to keep doing that as long as possible, because I always get a lot of pleasure and satisfaction from this,” he said at the time.